The programme for the 2017 Campfire Sessions has been revealed by Showman’s Show organiser, Lance Show & Publications Limited. Making a welcome return to Newbury Showground on 18th and 19th October, the dedicated stream of workshops and panel discussions will play host to a range of interesting topics and well-known industry speakers.

Kick-starting things at 10.15am on Wednesday 18th will be a session moderated by Production Services Association, general manager, Andy Lenthall entitled: ‘Are you an event freelancer?’ It will provide tips and advice on taxation, having the correct insurance in place and suggestions for successfully winning work.

Also confirmed is a session delivered by Iren De Pasquale, an assessor for A Greener Festival. The scheme has assessed over 400 festivals on their environmental management over the past 10 years. In 2017, it launched the Greener Event Award, opening the scheme up to the event industry as a whole. Taking place at 11.45am on Wednesday 18th October, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about their work and how to get involved, gaining insight in to the latest challenges and actions following this summer’s assessments of 37 events across 12 countries.   

This will be followed at 2pm with a session entitled: ‘How to successfully geo-clone your event’; as more and more event organisers take successful events and repeat them in different parts of the UK and around the world, the discussion will deliver handy tips for getting it right, as well as providing a platform for attendees to ask questions of the experienced panel. Confirmed speakers include: Goc O’Callaghan, ArcTanGent, founder of the award winning independent festival ArcTanGent and is the vice chair of the Association of Independent Festivals; Lisa Ward, Revival Productions, an experienced event manager who produces Classic Ibiza events around the UK and Andy Cotton, TAO Productions, who has 25 years’ experience in the entertainment industry and has worked on more than 5,000 events in various capacities.

At 10:15am on Thursday 19th October, Katie McPhee, head of marketing for music, arts & entertainment, Eventbrite will present ‘Innovation – what really counts.’ Now that we can project holograms onto the stage, enjoy festivals remotely via VR goggles and create impressive aerial crowd shots using drones, this session will explore if it really makes a difference. Do these innovations make for a better experience at the event or should event technology not rather focus on improving the experience of the main event itself? Katie will be making the case that technology should work in the background to enhance an event rather than take centre stage itself.

Drawing the Campfire Sessions to a close will be an Event Surgery with James Heappey, Member of Parliament for the Wells Constituency in South West England and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for events. Attendees are encouraged to bring along questions for James, who is perfectly placed to respond to any legislative queries and concerns that the industry has.

Commenting on the Campfire Session programme, event director, Johnny Lance said: “We were thrilled with the response to the introduction of the Campfire Sessions in 2016 and we’re definitely looking to build upon their success this year. The intimate and informal setting of the tipi, and the programme’s topics and speakers are all unique to the Showman’s Show and we’re very proud of that.”

Additional sessions include: Activate All Areas, a panel discussion on the numerous ways that event organisers can generate income by ‘activating’ the key attractions at their events; SafeHire - Raising the Standards in the Event Hire Industry; V-Hire - The Immersive Future of Events Training; Is the Events Industry Ready for General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and an entry level training programme dedicated to the Temporary Structure market. The full programme can be viewed here.